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Any advice for the lonely people of the world today Lestat..?

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♛Pardon the delay in reply, anonyme. I received this on Valentine’s Day but I was very busy with… romantic activities. Not to brag about it, I’ve spent many Valentine’s nights alone, and I’m… taken aback and more touched now for the nights I’m fortunate enough to spend with a loved one, whether it’s Valentine’s or any night of the week. There’s nothing all that inherently magical about holidays, only that we make them special by honoring them together.

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[X by @gifsfortc]

There are times when yes, the loneliness overtakes me. I do feel emptiness at times. Sometimes solitude is needed, just to get to know myself once again, so that I can return to my loved ones. I can’t advise you about your own loneliness because I feel that it has healing properties. And there are times when I need to be quarantined, when it’s better for everyone if we’re not together.

But I don’t let loneliness destroy me. I don’t let it take over. I can’t. I’m not built that way. 

I never give up. I never despair for long. I can’t. I’m always spinning straw into gold. And this is why I survive, more than anything. I am in my unfolding stories what the world calls a comic character, rather than a tragic character, because I am never permanently undone by anything, never finished or ruined, never permanently destroyed, no matter how great are my own flaws. I always come back. Always. [X, from Fan Questions for Lestat]

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FQL:

Lestat here. This question is from Chuck Johnson: “Undoubtedly you know of Armand’s attempted suicide following your acquisition of Veronica’s Veil. Do you have any theories on how he saved Sybelle and Benji? Was it truly Divine Intervention, or a form of projection?” — Chuck, no, I don’t have any theory on how Armand managed to save Sybelle and Benji — based on his description in his memoir. I suspect, however, that it was as you said, “a form of projection.” Armand has always had enormous psychic powers as a vampire, including the power to spellbind others with immense and very convincing illusions, the ability to hypnotize and control others, and to slip into altered states himself in which his dreams seem to provide some real gateway to another plane. I don’t doubt that he could do what we call astral projecting and take it perhaps one step further than many others, materializing or affecting matter in the location to which he’s projected himself. But I’m a novice in all this. I make no judgments on Armand’s abilities but I don’t fully understand them. I take him at his word that he did save Benji and Sybelle, and I’m not entirely sure that even he knows quite how he did it. Due to those mysterious psychic abilities, Armand makes a much better friend than an enemy. His spellbinding gifts are particularly dangerous. Being a person of action and a sensualist, I’m not really on Armand’s level when it comes to these mental skills. Armand’s thoughts are almost impossible for me to penetrate, and his boyish countenance often reveals nothing of his true calculations and feelings. I love him and I respect him — and I know that he loves me — but I never for a moment imagine I’m entirely safe with him.

I love him and I respect him — and I know that he loves me — but I never for a moment imagine I’m entirely safe with him.

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FQL:

Lestat here. I want to answer this questions from Ksenia Stepanova. “Hello Lestat… What do you find the single best thing about living in the 21st Century compared to the 18th?” Well, Ksenia, let me offer two answers. The selfish sensuous being in me says: electric light is the single best thing. The 21st century, like the 20th, in the West, is awash with artificial light which has endowed the nighttime with the energy and optimism of the daytime, and wholly changed the public life of the human race after dark. I love the splendidly lighted libraries, theaters, opera houses, movie houses, shopping malls, public thoroughfares, common streets, homes and parks. That’s my first selfish answer. But let me also give a longer philosophical answer: the moral being in me has to say that the single best thing in West today is the lack of the poverty and misery that was taken for granted in the 18th century. In the West, people today are well fed, healthy, wearing adequate and generally well constructed clothing and shoes, and free from starvation, death from exposure, and the diseases that ran rampant in the 18th century. Understand, the 18th century still saw cruel public executions, starvation right in the middle of capital cities like Paris or London, and massive death through contagious diseases and through poor sanitation. People today have almost no idea what all that was like. And at the time, of course, we thought the world would always be that way…mud and raw sewage in public streets, many children dying before the age of five, women gone at an early age from the ravages of childbirth, and people dying of common infections. We had no idea that the world could be the way it is now in Western nations. Working democracy was a vague dream when I came of age; the world was sharply divided between the rich and the poor; and criminals were still tortured and cruelly put to death before cheering mobs at places of public execution. Again, people today have no real idea how very different life was before. To say these are astonishing times is an understatement. Thanks for your question, Ksenia. —– And now I’m ready for more questions if any of you all want to enter them into this thread.

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FQL: Social Justice Edition

Lestat here. I want to answer this question from Mike Chandler: “Lestat, my question is simple. What would you do to fix the world?” —- Mike, I would not do anything because I don’t believe the world is “broken” or in need of fixing. I am aware of the age old belief of many that this is a “fallen” or “broken” world, but I’ve never accepted those ideas. At the present time, more than ever, I’m convinced the world is evolving. There never was any Golden Age or Garden of Eden. We are all evolving, physically and morally as the universe unfolds according to discernible scientific laws. And I’m fascinated by the process. As I explained earlier in another answer, I am by nature optimistic and confident, convinced that we can do much to make this world better for us and others. We vampires face essentially the same challenge as humans: how do we live with our own fallibility, our own greed, our own ruthlessness, yet co-exist with other creatures? That’s why just about every vampire story is essentially a human story. We acknowledge the same dilemma.

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FQL:

Lestat here. I want to answer Scott Hunsucker: “Lestat, I would like to know how you feel about music. You’ve been around long enough to hear some of the greats play and sing. Do you have a personal preference for a certain genre or style of music. If so, does the music move you, does it take you back or evoke memories of your past as it does with some of us mortals?” Scott, I love music. I have to be careful with it; music intoxicates me; I can become completely taken over by music, to where I don’t want to do much else but listen to it. It’s like a powerful drug. I love music of all periods, especially my own century — Mozart in particular. And some French composers who were earlier favorites at the French Royal Court. Vivaldi energizes me, as do many of the Italians. But I can be overpowered easily by Beethoven and Brahms, and 19th century opera as well. Verdi and Puccini and Saint Saens especially delight me. Of course I am enchanted by popular music of all kinds — Jim Morrison, Tina Turner, Bon Jovi, Joan Jett. I find myself highly susceptible to the most emotional and intense music. But I can be hypnotized by the gentle melodies of Eric Satie or Chopin as well. I am consumed from time to time with the desire to make music, to sneak off to some little tavern in the French Quarter of New Orleans and take to the stage with an electric guitar. I do this from time to time, actually. Though not as much as I would like. Thanks for the question. There are many more composers and performers I could name, but you get the idea. —– Now, if anyone has a new question for me, by all means post it in this thread.

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FQL:

Lestat here. I want to answer this question from Amanda Rice: Lestat, is it hard for you to watch humankind tear each other apart over social issues such as marriage equality or freedom of religion? After living so long, I am sure you realize that most of the fighting between us mortals is absurd and pointless, but I am curious to know what you make of all of it? Do you think humans will ever learn to do better?—- Amanda, you’re assuming we vampires, due to our long lives, are somehow emotionally and morally superior to humans and wiser than humans. I’m not so sure that we are. We are after all monsters with human brains and human hearts. We engage in a lot of struggle ourselves that is “absurd and pointless.” —- Actually when I witness humans struggling over social issues and religion, I marvel at their courage and stamina and determination to live meaningful, fruitful and compassionate lives. I marvel at their patience as they struggle to persuade others through reason and reasonable argument, rather than violence. And yes, over the centuries, humans, in my opinion, are certainly doing “better.” They are making great progress, particularly in the West, towards maintaining a secular humanist society in which no blood is shed over race, color, or creed. This is historically remarkable. I can understand your frustration, Amanda. But history, as I’ve lived it, supports a steady advance in human rights in the West that is not only inspiring, but beyond the wildest dreams of those born when I was born. Thanks for a marvelous question.

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The longest answer to a Fan Question for Lestat yet omg, of course bc it’s about FASHION, gdi Lestat.

Lestat here. Answering yet another question, this one from Sandra Evans Johnson: “Lestat how to you feel about clothing from the past as apposed to clothing from today?” Great question, Sandra, because I am mad for clothing and always have been. As you know I was born into a world of ornate and flaring frock coats, breeches and high heeled slippers, silks, satins, embroidery and the like, and stunning lace trimmed shirts with magnificent sleeves. It was an era in which well-to-do Parisian men wore as much powder and paint as any woman, along with powdered wigs and ribbons and jewels. And I loved it. But I grew up loving it with bitterness, longing, and desperate greed — as all of this high fashion belonged to the moneyed classes, and my family was penniless, rural, and threadbare. In sum, ever since experiencing the first flush of wealth, I’ve cared too much about being well dressed, gone to embarrassing lengths to obtain the most alluring fabrics and the most seductive designs, and spent entirely too much time admiring myself in mirrors. For long periods I have tried to make do with plainer clothes, especially when the times so decreed, but inevitably, both in despair and in joy, I return to baroque and extravagant fashions. I am too comforted by admiring glances. I enjoy too much entering a theater or opera house or public square and creating something of a sensation. And it delights me no end that in these nights of the Twenty-first century, I can dress almost as elaborately as I did in the 1700’s and people accept this. I appear to be eccentric but never mad. I adore close fitting small waisted and flaring coats, slim fitting pants, velvet, satin, glorious tweeds, leather and glimmering synthetics, finely woven shirts with heaps of delicate lace, pearl and cameo buttons, and the finest handmade boots I can procure. I glory in my thick and long blond hair which is part of the “costume.” And I can’t get enough of jeweled rings, fine gold watches, and dazzling cufflinks. I’m shameless with all this. It’s beautiful to me. I want to be beautiful. I’m fascinated by others who see dress and costume in the same way. I discard and abandon clothes all over the world simply because I want new clothes. And I go for the modern designers who most effectively capture the “frock coat” look, such as Ralph Lauren. But I also delight in exquisitely made double breasted blazers from Brooks Brothers, such superb work, and now and then I go for the Italian designers….but it’s always for well constructed clothes. The loose, formless, easy fashions so popular now are for other men. T shirts and bill caps? Never. Thanks for the question and I am personally ashamed that this is one of the longest answers I’ve ever given here.

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Another Fan Question for Lestat answered:

Lestat here. This question is from Federica DarkMoon: “Lestat, would you be give the Dark Gift to someone is ugly, but with a powerful attitude and a brilliant brain, and who loves the same kind of music, look and art you love?” Absolutely, I would, Federica. In theory and in principle and in fact, I would. But it is a fact of the Undead world — to be respected — that vampires give the Dark Gift to those whom they feel are physically as well as mentally and spiritual attractive. But could such a person be physically ugly? Yes. Could the person be old? Yes. Could the person be plain? Yes. Could the person be disfigured? Yes. What matters more than anything is the spirit infusing the person, and for me that would and should involve the person’s curiosity, intensity, love and respect for all life, and desire for knowledge. What matters to me more than anything in selecting candidates for the Dark Gift is whether or not I love them, or think that I will grow to love them, whether or not I desperately want them to share eternity with me, and whether or not they engage me sufficiently that I can count on myself to spend the requisite time with them needed to prepare them for immortality. Of course I’m a creature of wild impulse. I made my beloved child, Claudia, into a vampire just to see what would happen, and hoping that she would help prevent my companion, Louis, from leaving me. And to be quite candid about that, I had no idea Claudia would be so exquisite once transformed or so interesting. She was after all a tiny, malnourished creature, covered in dirt and rags, and on the brink of death. —- Does this cover it? I hope so.

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FQL:

Lestat here. I want to answer a question from Areona May: “Lestat, when you laid unmoving on the chapel floor all those years, why was it only Armand who was allowed to approach you? to touch you? What was it about him that was so special to your heart? —– Areona, I’m not quite ready to discuss in depth what was happening during my ‘comatose’ years on the chapel floor in New Orleans, but I can tell you I was conscious all the while, and aware of what was happening around me. In general, I was essentially recovering from my great journey to "Heaven and Hell” with Memnoch, seeking to make sense of what had been “revealed” to me and what it meant, and whether or not any of it could be trusted. You could say I was roaming on another plane of existence. Some time in the future, I might be able to say more about it. I controlled who approached me and who didn’t. And I did allow Armand to come close for a specific reason. He had a deep anguished need to know whether Memnoch had been a truthful spirit or a lying spirit, whether my visions with Memnoch had been true glimpses of the Divine or delusion. His pain shone bright, brighter than the pain of anyone near me. And so I honored Armand’s intentions. You could say that Armand respected what happened to me with Memnoch more than any of my other immortal comrades. I love Armand deeply. My view of Armand has evolved over time. The less I fear him, the more I love him. And the more I suffer, the more I come to understand Armand’s suffering. I have never doubted Armand’s love for me. We are kith and kin, Armand and me. Areona, thanks for the question. —– I will return later to this page to answer another question and at that time, you all can leave more questions for me.

[fanart by garama]

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FQL of recent answerage:

Lestat here. Deb Chowning Thomas asks: “Lestat, i would love to meet your mother. Do you ever see her? I would love to hear of her adventures.” Trust me, Deb. You do not want to meet my mother. Meeting my mother is one of those ideas that sounds good, but isn’t. My mother isn’t calculatedly cruel but she is almost entirely indifferent to human beings, and even those immortals around her. And you’ll likely never hear a story of her adventures, but she will never take the trouble to tell such a tale, even to herself, let alone anyone else. I do love my mother and I do see her often of late, but I could never call it deeply satisfying or even a pleasure. Sentient and articulate beings bore my mother. She is truly more interested in the physical world, and the animal world than she is in human personality or art or culture. But who knows? Maybe I’m wrong about my mother. Maybe she does have some great story to tell about a love, a tragedy, a triumph or what mortals call “a learning experience.” But I see no indication of it. Let’s put it this way, she seems consistently annoyed when I’m around her, and eager to slip away. That’s the dominant theme with her. And that’s how she’s been since her first nights as an immortal. But maybe I need her too much to really understand her. Good question, Deb. Thanks. But if you do ever encounter my mother, run. I doubt she’s ever bothered to stalk or chase or hunt down an unwilling victim. Just doesn’t interest her.

viaticumforthemarquise, thoughts?